WTF?! Imagine being eight years old and getting $33,000 along with a $5,000 PC after becoming a pro gamer. For Joseph Deen, better known as Gosu, this became a reality last December when he signed with eSports organization Team 33, making him the second-youngest professional gamer ever.

California-based Deen has been playing Fortnite since he was four years old, and was first noticed by Team 33 , a relative unknown in the community, 18 months ago. “I’ve thought about being a professional gamer a lot, but no one took me seriously until Team 33 came along,” he told the BBC.

A Team 33 scout spotted Deen’s talent and started playing one-on-one matches with the boy, eventually realizing that if they didn’t sign him, someone else would.

Fortnite is rated T (for Teen) by the ESRB and has a PEGI rating of 12, though anyone who’s played a Call of Duty online match will know age ratings are rarely a deterrent to kids. However, his young age does mean he won’t compete in Fortnite competitions with cash prizes until he is 13, though he can still enter tournaments where money isn’t on offer. He’s also restricted from Twitch until his thirteenth birthday.

Fortnite pro gaming, a career in which you consider retirement at 25

“Joseph is legally allowed to be in tournaments with no cup,” said Team 33’s chief executive and founder, Tyler Gallagher. “We also plan to build up his online presence through YouTube, which is also legal. With his online presence, we plan to build merchandise for him and sell that as well. So in our view if we can make $33,000 out of all that we do over the next few years we win, and that is what we are shooting for.”

Team 33 added that it plans to “groom him to be a top-level player,” which may be a poor choice of words when talking about an eight-year-old.

There have been concerns over someone as young as Deen signing a contract, but his mother, Gigi, is unconcerned. “The contract is to protect him really. He can pull out whenever he wants and it’s totally flexible. It’s on his terms and my terms. It’s like a child actor really – they would do more work than he’s doing,” she said.

Deen isn’t the youngest-ever pro-gamer. According to the Guinness Book of Records, another American player, Victor De Leon III, known online as “Lil Poison,” holds this honor after signing a pro deal in 2005 at the age of seven.

Walk through Bacchanalia’s new doors and you’ll find yourself standing in the middle of a shiny black-and-white tiled kitchen immediately reminiscent of the ones the late great Joel Robuchon favoured in his restaurants.

It is no coincidence. Not only does the restaurant have a new look, it also has a new executive chef. Taking over from Luke Armstrong is Vianney Massot, who previously headed L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon at Resorts World Sentosa.

He might be just 27 years old, but Massot is a pedigreed chef. After beginning his career with Eric Frechon at Epicure in Paris, the French wunderkind worked closely with Robuchon for nine years up until the culinary giant’s death in August this year. After a stint at the three-Michelin-starred Robuchon au Dome in Macau, the young chef commandeered the kitchen of two-starred L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon and running it up until the restaurant’s closure in June.

Bacchanalia might be a familiar name that carries many associations, but Massot’s menu and interior redesign signal a clear new direction.

“I want people to understand that here is a new restaurant,” he said, over coffee at the conclusion of the meal he had just served us: A preview of the all-new degustation menu he’s rolling out.

And indeed – in case you miss that point – after a two-month closure and restaurant overhaul, the one-Michelin-starred establishment has reopened with a new name to boot: It’s now called Bacchanalia By Vianney Massot.

HERITAGE AND SEASONALITY

It’s only natural that a desire to perpetuate Robuchon’s legacy should be evident in Massot’s menu, and nowhere is that more clearly announced than in the opening amuse bouche, a goose liver cream under a film of duck jelly piped with tiny geometric dots of corn puree and concentrated parsley, with white truffle shavings and a kernel of popcorn as its centerpiece.

While Robuchon’s dish used crustacean jelly, crab and caviar, Massot shared that his is done in his own style. “I know what he’d like – I know, for example, that he would like this dish – but I tried to do it a different way.”

More than an homage, Massot said, his work is about the heritage left to him by Mr Robuchon. “We were very close. He taught me a lot. When you have the chance to work for someone who is very strong, it’s good to continue his skill.

I think I need to continue in the way he taught me, and to try to push to improve, improve, improve, using those skills and creating something new.”

For instance, the main course, slow-cooked Bresse chicken with ivory sauce and Paris mushrooms, served with a risotto in a liberal splash of olive oil, is “a little joke” of his revolving around chicken rice. “I like Singapore and I like the ingredients,” he said. “And, you know, Mr Robuchon served a mashed potato; I serve a risotto. I try to give my own take.”

While he’s keen on playing with Asian flavours and spices, his direction is still decidedly French. “I think the fine dining scene in Singapore, when it comes to French restaurants, is a little small,” he said. And now, Bacchanalia can now help to fill it out a little more.

Although he wouldn’t go so far as to use ingredients such as chilli padi, for example, he does use Sarawak black pepper – in the grilled Omi ribeye steak with red wine sauce.

His menus, which will change every season, will always focus on seasonality. The current L’automne menu, for instance, features Alba white truffle tagliatelle in a creamy Shanghai hairy crab sauce.

There’s also a scallop ravioli with kumquat emulsion, Imperial caviar and young baby leek, drizzled with chilli oil; and perhaps the most inspired dish on the menu – or at least the one that pleased us most – a cep tartlette with spicy eggplant caviar and parmesan shavings. On a feuilletine disc, Massot arranges tiny petals of porcini into an elaborate rose, starting from the outside and meticulously working his way in to the centre.

“If I have cep mushrooms, I want you to feel the cep. Now, you can get mushrooms; you can get Alba truffles. And I have green asparagus coming in,” he said. For the a la carte menu, which will be rolled out on Nov 12, Massot shared that he will do lamb. “Because the season for lamb from the Pyrenees is starting soon,” he said. He continued: “Some chefs can create things on paper. I cannot do that. I order a product, I look at the quality, I start to cook a little bit, and after, I start to imagine how I will use it for the dish.”

LOOKING AHEAD

It’s clear that Massot is out to make his mark, but how does he feel about taking over the reins from two previous high-profile chefs – Ivan Brehm, who led the restaurant to its star, and later Armstrong, who retained that star for two years?

“I think the chef before did not have ideas that were the same as mine, so I cannot say too much about before. I don’t really know how it was before,” Massot said.

READ > Kitchen Stories: When the head chef is a 27-year-old girl boss

Armstrong, who is Australian, left Bacchanalia in August after receiving an offer to work in Tokyo.

Massot said he was introduced to Bacchanalia’s current owners, who took over in January, just as Robuchon’s Singapore restaurants were closing. “I had quite a good feeling when I saw this restaurant,” he said.

During the renovations, he was on site every day for two months, working closely with the contractors to oversee all aspects of the restaurant’s design. The number of covers has been reduced from 28 to 24, for a more intimate dining experience, he explained, and includes a chef’s table. The restaurant also now has on board award-winning sommelier Roberto Duran.

“We kept the Bacchanalia name because I know Singaporeans know it, so I respect it. But this is a new restaurant. I try my best to give it my own identity, and to give Bacchanalia a good future,” Massot said.

The five-course lunch degustation menu is priced at S$158++ and the seven-course dinner degustation menu at S$298++. Bacchanalia By Vianney Massot is at 39 Hongkong Street.

A FURIOUS dad tried to attack his 15-year-old daughter’s alleged killer as he reconstructed the moment he raped and murdered her.

Harrowing footage shows Bangmad Prathom Kongrah pin down a model in a pink hoodie as he reenacted how he assaulted and killed teen Nina Arisara in front of outraged locals in Songkhla, Thailand.

He was escorted by police on the crime reconstruction after confessing to assaulting and battering the youngster to death on February 27.

The late teen’s dad, Anan Jantula – who says he has nightmares about the attack – was with enraged relatives when he attempted to push through police to try to reach his daughter’s killer.

Dozens of horrified residents watched on as Prathom then pinned down a model in a reconstruction and showed cops how says he killed his victim.

Prathom has admitted to attacking Nina, who he first saw riding a scooter at a gas station where they were both refuelling.

He said: “I was drunk that time and about to drive home from Hat Yai.

“However, I saw her and felt horny so I thought of doing it.”

Prathom was recorded on CCTV cameras at the gas station where he allegedly waited for 20 minutes as Nina paid for petrol and bought snacked.

He then followed the teen after she left.

Police Major General Tewtawat Nakornsri said Prathom followed Nina’s motorbike in his Toyota car before crashing into the scooter to knock her to the ground.

He said: “He was driving the Toyota into the gas station.

“Nina was wearing a hooded jacket and going through her pockets to pay for the gas while he waited and watched her.

“He also left when the girl had left and rammed her motorbike when he reached a secluded part of the road.”

Prathom allegedly made sure that the motorbike fell into the ditch before he punched her in the stomach and raped her.

He said he then used a metal rod to batter her face until she was dead and manipulated the scene to make it look like the girl died from an accident.

Despite the angry mob, the police were able to let Prathom back into the van safely after the reenactment.

The investigation is still ongoing, but Nina’s father Anan said he wants Prathom to be sentenced to death or jailed for life.

He said: “He had done this before and still have no conscience. He repeated his actions again so I believe he is very cruel.

“My daughter was just a child. I wanted to see her grow up and have a family.

“This is the most evil thing that could happen.

“I have nightmares when I think about the fear she felt before she died.”

Prathom has a past conviction for assaulting a 15-year-old in 2002. He was imprisoned for a year and fined 5,000 Baht (£118).

Meet Ryan, a seven-year-old kid who simply loves to play with his toys such as Legos, trains, cars.

He also earned US$22 million (S$30 million) over the past year and has more than 17 million YouTube followers.

Forbes has just released its list of highest-paid YouTube stars and the precocious first grader who fronts Ryan Toysreview topped the list.

“I’m entertaining and I’m funny,” Ryan, who wants to be a game developer when he grows up, recently told NBC. His extremely popular short videos – where he plays with and reviews his latest toys – have gained him nearly 26 billion views since he and his family launched the channel in March 2015. It was an unboxing video of 100 Cars toys that went viral that year that catapulted him to YouTube fame. His fans? Other primary school kids, of course.

Today, he also has a line of Ryan’s World toys and clothes, which are selling at Walmart. The toys he features often sell out in minutes. There are also plans for his videos to be repackaged and distributed through Amazon and Hulu.

So where did the money come from? Almost all had come from pre-roll ads that play before his videos (only US$1 million came from sponsored posts). Last year, he was No 8 on Forbes’ list, according to Business Insider.

Other YouTubers who made the list are all in their 20s and 30s – many of which are gamers, like Vanoss Gaming from Canada (seventh), Markiplier from Hawaii (sixth). Online sensation Jake Paul placed second with US$21.5 million in earnings.

To come up with the list, Forbes measured pre-tax earnings between Jun 1, 2017, and Jun 1, 2018, minus fees for agents, managers and lawyers.